Exemplary embodiments pertain to the art of aerial vehicles and, more particularly, to a method and system for teaming manned and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Manned aerial vehicles, such as helicopters, are often times employed in unplanned missions to access an area of interest not readily available to ground vehicles. In some cases, the area of interest may represent a hostile environment such as a battle zone. In other cases, the areas may represent a busy or clustered environment such as a heavily populated urban zone or city. In either case, in in most cases a nearby, safe landing zone must be identified to allow personnel to egress from the aerial vehicle and access the area.
For example, rescue personnel may need to egress from a helicopter to access and aid an individual(s) that may be suffering from a battle wound, a motor vehicle injury, or the like. In many cases, the aerial vehicle may need to circle the area of interest to locate a landing zone that is away from hostile fire or that provides sufficient room to allow for landing. Circling an area of interest to locate a desirable landing area could take time and therefore delay providing assistance to a person in the area of interest.